Why God allows severe trials to enter the lies of his children, even to hedge them about, is one of the oldest questions in the universe. The problem of pain has engaged the finest and the most devoted minds from time immemorial and has never yet been satisfactorily resolved.

We believe that one day our God will make plain to his children the inscrutability of his ways; that in that golden morning when "we shall know as we are known," every question will be forever stilled, and we shall be eternally satisfied with his explanation.

Until then, we accept from his hand all that comes into our lives and seek to glorify him in and throught it. The entire human race is subject to suffering: "The same afflications are accomplished in your brthren that are in the world." But only the christian has hope of final answers to life’s mysteries. How much easier to take our sorrows from the Father’s hand, knowing his presence with us now and having his promise of light ahead, than to suffer alone and in the dark!

When God has accomplished in us that purpose for which he has allowed our afflictions to come to us, he termantes the afflictions either here or in heaven. Meanwhile, he succors us as we live with our problems. He hears the cry of his afflicted ones and has mercy on them. He has promised to be our strength, our fortress and our refuge in the day of affliction. His World is our comfort, no matter how great the trial.